Ho hum, county budget indecision goes on

County council juggles part-time worker requirements

The following action taken Tuesday at its monthly meeting strikes me as the quintessential moment for Delaware County Council:

The county has serious challenges using part-time employees, especially in some departments, such as emergency 911 dispatchers where applicants have to work part-time before they can hire on full time.

But elsewhere, too, especially as the county, in trying to deal with property tax cap revenues losses long known about yet ignored, wants to shed more workload into part-time posts and reduce full-time workforce.

County salaries overall are modest, but benefits, especially health care for full-time employees, are generous. The county hoped to reduce that bite.

To that end, the county restructured part-time work to create multiple tiers of pay levels based on qualifications. Previously, one rate fit all, though most part-time positions were menial labor.

Now with the federal Affordable Health Care Act/Obamacare, the policy of converting more slots from full time into part time looked as if it might backfire in some instances since any part-time employee working too many hours would have to receive health care.

Therefore in April, the county council passed an ordinance restricting all part-time workers to no more than 29 hours per week, thus assuring those workers would not get benefits. (The county workweek is 32.5 hours, by the way, so full-time isn't all that much more than the part-time maximum.)

The restriction caused wailing in county government as work not done by part-timers, thanks to reduced hours, fell to others to perform. So, too, did logistics problems crop up.

As well, the 911 director started to look at some different models, including using dedicated call-takers rather than have each dispatcher answering the emergency lines.

He also told council he would look to hire experienced part-time workers and Ball State students who would stick around for several years, hence cutting down turnover while keeping the restricted hours.

Now comes the president of the United States and presumes, evidently, the authority to delay rolling out the part of Obamacare that mandated health care benefits for part-timers who work 30 or more hours per week. The requirement originally set to go into effect Jan. 1 next year is now delayed one year.

The "delay" looked a lot like a "reprieve" to county government, and county council quickly suspended rules to remove the earlier ordinance meant to comply with Obamacare.

A couple of council members, notably Republican Scott Alexander, suggested keeping the policy "to give us time to adjust" because next year, the county will have to again legislate compliance.

But for a council whose hallmark has become kicking cans down roads, the one-year exemption just meant another 12-month dispensation before biting one more bullet.

The intractable unwillingness to come to grips with fiscal crisis got further demonstrated Monday, when county council held a special session to deal with the issue and wound up doing nothing.

The rudderless group seemed to have no idea even how to proceed. "Anybody want to start things off?" asked President Kevin Nemyer, convening the meeting.

Although nobody thinks the county will be anywhere but in dire circumstances come the end of the year, members had no consensus on how much to cut from the 2013 budget.

The county's $25,000 Indianapolis consultant told them that to have a 15 percent balance - something to shoot for - in the general fund on Dec. 31, the council needed to cut an astonishing $3.7 million.

Having done nothing for months on end except borrow money from various accounts without hopes for paying back, council can't conceivably make that cut.

So the fallback position seems to be to cut something: "Bottom line is right now," Repubican Ron Quakenbush tried to summarize, "if we don't cut a certain amount of this year's budget, we won't have enough to carry over."

Still, members questioned every other tangent except what to do: why the county doesn't go to twice-a-month paydays rather than every other week, why Muncie Community Schools isn't taking a media beating for trying to raise tax rates, is our situation analogous to Detroit, and how did we get to this place, anyway?

The final idea for a yet-unspecified future meeting: each council member is to look at all general fund account lines and see whether those that still have balances can be reduced.

Some plan.

Larry Riley teaches English at Ball State. Email him at at lriley@bsu.edu.

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Ho hum, county budget indecision goes on

The following action taken Tuesday at its monthly meeting strikes me as the quintessential moment for Delaware County Council: